Dream Job from Foreign Deskby Anja Latacz

12:00AM GMT 16 Nov 2006

"Richard Quest, with the BBC, in Bangkok". Those were the kind of sign-offs that fascinated me in high school, when I first dreamed of becoming a foreign correspondent.

The life of foreign correspondents seemed appealing to me; I imagined I would sip cafe lattes all day reading newspapers, and in the evening interview the Thai industry minister for a three-minute TV spot.

However, I did not study journalism, a prerequisite of becoming a foreign correspondent, because a young man with blue eyes caught my interest in economic issues just as the time came to make the choice of what to study at university. Thus, I became a macro-economist, mostly working overseas.

Over the next 14 years, as I pursued my career, the dream of entering journalism never went away. Then I saw an advert for the London School of Journalism (LSJ), in a magazine on a flight back from an assignment.

As my personal passion is feature writing, I decided to take a distance learning diploma in their course on Freelance Journalism and Feature Writing, while still working abroad.

Enrolling online was simple, and a day later I had the first two lessons transmitted via email. For people who are used to learning without a teacher, from text books and manuscripts, distance learning is ideal, particularly if they cannot study at a learning centre for family, work, or other reasons.

In the case of the LSJ, experienced journalists serve as tutors to the students, who are in reality considered as trainees rather than pupils. A one-to-one tutor/student relationship is quickly established, with the student sending the completed assignments (which in my course covered a broad spectrum of news and feature work, as well as script exercises for radio and TV) to the tutor via email whenever is convenient.

Distance courses do not necessarily always have to take a year, or two, to complete. I finished my 12-lesson diploma course in a much shorter time than anticipated. It was a new but pleasurable and efficient way to learn.